So, enjoy! ;-)

Please introduce yourself!

My name is Frédéric Crozat, I’m 36 and I live in Paris (France). I’m working for SUSE for a little more than a year, with focus on various topics such as SUSE MeeGo, GNOME 3 live image, LXC (Linux Containers) and more recently, systemd.. Before that, I worked for 10 years at MandrakeSoft/Mandriva, taking care of GNOME. From 2002 to 2011, I was part of GNOME Release Team, making sure GNOME was released on time and with all those nice features.

Tell us about the background to your computer use.

I’ve been interested in computer since I was a kid (first computer was a MSX Canon V20).. First „big program“ (on a PC 8086 with 10MB hard disk IIRC) I wrote was a billing program for my mom (she owns a bookstore), when I was in 7th grade (first in Quick Basic), then I rewrote it in Turbo Pascal when I learned Pascal in 2nd grade and later, I even rewrote it in Object Oriented Pascal (because I bought Borland Pascal 6 or 7, shipped with huge printed user manual, included OO stuff) when I was in collegue. And my mom used this program (on the same computer) until she closed her shop, 7 years ago ;)

Then, I went to a Computer Science Engineering school where I learned a lot about computers science (even if I was already a geek ;), including C, C++, Java and many strange languages.

I also learned Unix there and discovered Linux because our C teacher told us „you’ll get a free C compiler you’ll be able to use at home“ and then, I became hooked (it was in 1996)

When and why did you start using openSUSE/SUSE Linux?

I started to use openSUSE when I joined Novell (now SUSE) in August 2010. I was already monitoring openSUSE (and SUSE) before, when I was working at MandrakeSoft/Mandriva.

When did you join the openSUSE community and what made you do that?

I joined the community when I started to use openSUSE and more precisely, after openSUSE conference in October 2010 (where I met a lot of interesting people)

In what way do you participate in the openSUSE project?

Initially, I helped on GNOME (and a bit on MeeGo, when it was still alive). I took care of GNOME 3 live image (used by GNOME Foundation, and based on openSUSE). More recently, I’ve been handling the switch to systemd for openSUSE 12.1

What especially motivates you to participate in the openSUSE project?

I want openSUSE to be the best Linux distribution in the ecosystem, best in the „easy to use“ sense, but also best in its interaction with upstream projects.

What do you think was your most important contribution to the openSUSE project/community or what is the contribution that you’re most proud of?

Probably, GNOME 3 live image : I started as a way to learn SUSE Studio and then kiwi, and it morphed into a 3 months projects, which helped a lot on GNOME 3.0 launch and Novell/SUSE sponsored 10000 promo DVD based on this work which were handed over to GNOME Foundation.

When do you usually spend time on the openSUSE project?

Usually, during the day, in parallel to my work at SUSE (when it is not openSUSE related)

Three words to describe openSUSE? Or make up a proper slogan!

Green ; Easy ; Powerful

What do you think is missing or underrated in the distribution or the project?

Underrated : OBS . We have a unique technology, simplifing software package (and availability).

What do you think the future holds for the openSUSE project?

Great things :) . OpenSUSE as a project is pretty young, compared to other projects I’ve participated in the past, and I want to be sure we’ll be able to use other project experience to go even further (and avoid possible mistakes other did)

A person asks you why he/she should choose openSUSE instead of other distribution/OS. What would be your arguments to convince him/her to pick up openSUSE?

Because we give people choice and freedom. And we also make sure to have great relations with other communities (either upstream projects or even other distributions)

Which members of the openSUSE community have you met in person?

I can’t list all of them (attending conferences makes the list very long), but in my short list, I’d say Vincent Untz, DimStar, FunkyPenguin, Michael Meeks and many many other people

How many icons are currently on your desktop?

None, since GNOME 3 doesn’t have icons on the desktop anymore ;)

What is the application you can’t live without? And why?

I’d say Firefox, empathy, evolution and git ;)

Which application or feature should be invented as soon as possible?

Easy (ie transparent) backup, and getting my data synchronized and available everywhere ( I know both those ideas are being addressed, but not yet fully and in a „easy for my mom to use“ form)

Which is your preferred text editor? And why?

Vim. I’ve been using both Emacs and vi for a long time and some years ago, I switched to vim exclusively, because it was just so fast to start (I tend to detect a lot of different files not always at the same time) and I thought I would be better to focus on just one editor and better learn to use it at its full potential (I don’t consider myself a vim guru at all)

Which famous person would you want to join the openSUSE community?

None, all the best are there already (kidding ;)

Which computer related skills would you like to have?

Understand assembly language and this kind of low level stuff. I learned it at school, but it was never my „thing“

The Internet crashes for a whole week — how would you feel, what would you do?

This is exactly what I’m experiencing right now (moving between flats). So, I’m using a 3G Internet access at home… More seriously, in the past, when I was travelling for my holidays, I always make sure to „unplug“ myself for one or two weeks and everything went fine.

Which is your favorite movie scene?

None in particular

Star Trek or Star Wars?

Star Trek (but I like both)

What is your favorite food and drink?

Food : truffade (regional dish from countryside, cheese and potatoes : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truffade

No favorite drink, I like a lot of them ;)

Favorite game or console (in your childhood and nowadays)?

Heavy Rain / ICO. When I was younger, the various „Commander Keen“ from Apogee Software

Which city would you like to visit?

The list is pretty long, but right now, I’d list Amsterdam and New-York.

What is your preferred way to spend your vacation?

Travelling with my wife and use my DSLR to take a glimpse of the landscapes encountered.

Someone gives you $1.000.000 — what would you do with the money?

No idea. Call me when the bank order is done on my account and we’ll talk ;)

If traveling through time was possible — when would we be most likely to meet you?

Nowadays is a nice time, not sure I would move permanently to another time (but maybe I use it to visit various times ;)

There’s a thunderstorm outside — do you turn off your computer?

I used to (because I lived for a long time in rural environment). I don’t anymore.

Have your ever missed an appointment because you forgot about it while sitting at your computer?

One or two times, mostly because I forgot to set the alarm in my calendar for the appointment ;)

Show us a picture of something, you have always wanted to share!

This is what some collegues did in our office in Paris : everybody should do the same : http://www.flickr.com/photos/fcrozat/6055381155/in/photostream (and I’m now the guardian of this geeko ;)

You couldn’t live without…

My wife

Which question was the hardest to answer?

Movie scene / what to do with one million $.

What other question would you like to answer? And what would you answer?

Please introduce yourself!

Hello! My name is Mihnea and I’m a 19 year old student from Bucharest, Romania.

Tell us about the background to your computer use.

I’ve had a computer (not the same one, of course!) since I was very young, something like 5 years old, I think and I’ve always been interested in technology. I went to a computer science/programming oriented high school and now I’ve just finished my first year at the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computers @ the Polytechnic University of Bucharest. I’ve also taken some various extra-curricular courses, like a Linux one, servers etc. Now I’m taking a Java / OOP course during the summer holiday.

When and why did you start using openSUSE/SUSE Linux?

A few years ago, when I was trying various distributions. I haven’t used only openSUSE since, but it is one of my favourite distros because I feel it is somehow more polished than other distros around.

When did you join the openSUSE community and what made you do that?

About before the GSoC research period started. I was interested to see how the people behind openSUSE are like. Also, I didn’t join before because I felt I was too much of a beginner and that I couldn’t really contribute. Stupid thought, I guess.

In what way do you participate in the openSUSE project?

I’m working on the bug reporting tool for my gsoc project and if I have the chance I try to help people on IRC.

What especially motivates you to participate in the openSUSE project?

I like the community and the general approach of openSUSE. Oh, and my favourite colour is green! :)

Tell us about your GSoC project?

Oh, it’s awesome. Everything works! How cool is that? :)

My project consists of making a bug reporting tool that can help users submit reports easily. Also, it can help screening teams’ members beacause it also finds maintainers and bugowners.

Its main functionalities are splitted in four categories at the moment:

• aid - helps the user to determine which is the „suspected” package that causes a problem
• gather - scans the system for relevant data to provide in a bug
  report or to someone that helps, via IRC let’s say
• query - search the Bugzilla instance for bug reports that fit given
  keywords and sorts them by relevance
• submit - gets input from the user and submits the bug report to Bugzilla
  

  Underlying nice stuff:

• duplicate search – this feature was very wanted from what I could tell. I managed to implement it using a sorting by relevance of bug reports. From what I could see in the tests I’ve done, it works great. Also, it supports “excluded words” functionality.
• get assignee + maintainers – I use data from the rpm and then get the relevant information via OBS, using it’s python bindings, not the shell tool
• check account – verifies that the user has a valid account and if so, it stores the user’s credentials in a hidden file, base64 encrypted and pickled to make them not human readable; if the data is stored, the user isn’t prompted again for username & password when interacting with bugzilla
• globbing : when searching for a package, you can also do something like search for ‘ kde* ‘ and it will show you what packages match
• searching local rpm database: it also looks in ‘provides’, not only in ‘name’
  

I’ve also implemented some other nice stuff but I don’t want to „bore the audience“. You can find everything in the repo here: https://github.com/mihneadb/suse_bug_reporter

When do you usually spend time on the openSUSE project?

During the day, mostly, but I always check my e-mail on the phone.

Three words to describe openSUSE? Or make up a proper slogan!

Green, polished, structured.

What do you think is missing or underrated in the distribution or the project?

Some nice auto completion for zypper (I mean, for package names and stuff like that). Also, I feel that sometimes it could use more packages in the repos / in the OBS.

What do you think the future holds for the openSUSE project? And your future at the project?

I hope it grows and it becomes more active (wiki, lizards etc.) . I also hope that you (the community) will like my bug reporting tool and will include it by default in the distro and that I can keep improving on it and maintaining it.

A person asks you why he/she should choose openSUSE instead of other distribution/OS. What would be your arguments to convince him/her to pick up openSUSE?

I’d argue that zypper is a nice tool and that YaST helps a lot in configuring and, basically, taking care of one’s system. Also, the fact that the community is great and the fact that he/she probably won’t experience any trouble in regular day-to-day usage.

Which members of the openSUSE community have you met in person?

None :(.

How many icons are currently on your desktop?

About five. Nothing important, just stuff that I’ve downloaded and I wanted to see there in order not to forget about it.

What is the application you can’t live without? And why?

I’d say my web browser (Google-chrome/chromium). Nowadays, you can have anything if you have a web browser! :)

Which application or feature should be invented as soon as possible?

A functional gnome 3 on ATI cards with fglrx drivers, or a smarter Xfce that remembers the switch kb layout shortcuts after a few restarts.

Which is your preferred text editor? And why?

I got used to vim lately because it’s quick and easy to use, but I wouldn’t say it’s my preferred / favourite text editor.

Which famous person would you want to join the openSUSE community?

Oh, I don’t really know, the people I thought of probably don’t use Linux.

Which computer related skills would you like to have?

I’d like to learn AI programming. And I will!

The Internet crashes for a whole week — how would you feel, what would you do?

I wouldn’t care that much, I’d do what I usually do in my free time – spend time with my girlfriend, play basketball, go swimming, listem to music, read.

Which is your favorite movie scene?

There are many inspirational ones, but, let me choose a funnier one – Bad Boys 2, Reggie comes to take Marcus’ daughter out on a date. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_Y9SQhcIjw

Star Trek or Star Wars?

Definitely Star Wars. I didn’t even see too much of Star Trek.

What is your favorite food and drink?

„Dorada en sal“ and fresh orange juice.

Favorite game or console (in your childhood and nowadays)?

Never had a favourite. I do own a PS3. :)

Which city would you like to visit?

LA.

What is your preferred way to spend your vacation?

Skiing.

Image you would win the GSoC! What would you do? Would you stay with openSUSE?

I’m not sure what the question means. If I win the whole amount of money? I’d go in a vacation and maybe buy a watch and the rest I’d save. Yes, as I said above, I’d like to keep working on my tool.

If traveling through time was possible — when would we be most likely to meet you?

I’m not sure. I kind of like the present.

There’s a thunderstorm outside — do you turn off your computer?

No. It’s safe where I live.

Have your ever missed an appointment because you forgot about it while sitting at your computer?

No.

Show us a picture of something, you have always wanted to share!

Awesome view! http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/The_Spit_Bruny_Island.jpg

You couldn’t live without…

I guess the question means material stuff? My phone, I’d say.

Which question was the hardest to answer?

Which city I’d like to visit.

What other question would you like to answer? And what would you answer?

I don’t know, the questions above were fine. :) I’d like to thank the openSUSE community for according me the opportunity to work on this project, and also my mentor, Michal Vyskocil for his guidance.

Please introduce yourself!

My name is Manu, I am 21 years old and I live in India. I am currently in my final year of graduation in computer science. My native language is Hindi. During my free time, I participate in openSUSE Project and hang out with friends, watch movies and do other stuff.

Tell us about the background to your computer use.

I started with computers in my 6th standard I believe starting with computer games. I immediately fell in love with them. But as I moved to boarding I had no access to computers until my college.

When and why did you start using openSUSE/SUSE Linux?

I started using openSUSE around 2 years back. I started to use it out of fascination and to learn about Linux as much as I can. Earlier I used Ubuntu and Fedora too but openSUSE caught my attention. I realized it to be a wonderful operating system that furnished my needs.

When did you join the openSUSE community and what made you do that?

The same time I started using openSUSE. One prominent reason was to learn Linux. So I joined the community to meet awesome people and learn from them.
In what way do you participate in the openSUSE project?

I participate in the openSUSE Project in a lot of ways. I am a part of the marketing team, the news team and also the part of ambassador welcome team in our ambassador programme. With my GSoC Project, I will be working on SaX3 and I hope to do it justice.

What especially motivates you to participate in the openSUSE project?

The fun element and the awesomest people in the project.

Tell us about your GSoC project?

I am working on SaX3, and off course it needs no introduction. I just hope I do justice to it at the end of the coding period.

When do you usually spend time on the openSUSE project?

I usually spend a lot of my free time for openSUSE.

Three words to describe openSUSE? Or make up a proper slogan!

Have a lot of fun :)

What do you think is missing or underrated in the distribution or the project?

We need a tighter integration with media codecs. Rest all works like a charm.

What do you think the future holds for the openSUSE project? And your future at the project?

openSUSE has got a wonderful future. I don’t know about my future at the project but definitely like to keep it the way as it is now.

A person asks you why he/she should choose openSUSE instead of other distribution/OS. What would be your arguments to convince him/her to pick up openSUSE?

I will ask them to use it for at least 2 months and explore it and then decide. People want instant results and that is not achievable.

Which members of the openSUSE community have you met in person?

Sankar P, Vincent Untz, Bharath Acaharya, Akhil Ladha and a lot of the people from SUSE / Novell Bangalore (now Bengaluru) office. Off course, there are other like Akash, N B Prashanth and Saurabh Sood who contribute a lot to openSUSE and are my very good friends.

How many icons are currently on your desktop?

Well none, because of GNOME 3, otherwise there would have been plenty

What is the application you can’t live without? And why?

Firefox, I spend a lot of time over the net

Which application or feature should be invented as soon as possible?

A git like filesystem maybe

Which is your preferred text editor? And why?

Vim.. as gets the job done

Which famous person would you want to join the openSUSE community?

Linus

Which computer related skills would you like to have?

Packaging

The Internet crashes for a whole week — how would you feel, what would you do?

I will move out, and read some books, hang out with friends.

Which is your favorite movie scene?

Difficult again as I watch a lot of movies and do not remember one specific out of it.

Star Trek or Star Wars?

Star Wars ( I have not watched Star Trek yet )

What is your favorite food and drink?

While at home, I enjoy my Mom’s cooking ( I make sure I gain a few kgs/pounds ;) ). Otherwise, I love pizzas a lot. I love a lot of coffee and also ice-creams.

Favorite game or console (in your childhood and nowadays)?

Lots and lots of games, the list is endless. Earlier when I was on Windows I remember playing carmaggadon, star gunner, flying tigers, xonix, Halo and others. These always remained classic for me even though I enjoyed playing other RPGs and RTS. Nowadays on Linux, I do not play a lot of big games but certainly among my favorites are tux racer, open arena, ardentryst and specially I have no tomatoes are among my favorites

Which city would you like to visit?

Again, I am not sure about this there are a lot of places to visit but one of my favorite holiday destinations would be Venice

What is your preferred way to spend your vacation?

I prefer to stay at home as this is my only time when I meet my family.

Image you would win the GSoC! What would you do? Would you stay with openSUSE?

I don’t know what I am going to with that amount of money not decided yet. Yes I will stay with openSUSE

If traveling through time was possible — when would we be most likely to meet you?

I do not prefer time travel :) but maybe this openSUSE Conference if I get to it.

There’s a thunderstorm outside — do you turn off your computer?

Naa. Why would I do that?

Have your ever missed an appointment because you forgot about it while sitting at your computer?

My friends always call me up :)

Show us a picture of something, you have always wanted to share!

I don’t have one such photo yet

You couldn’t live without…

My family, friends, a computer and a lot of other things

Which question was the hardest to answer?

This one among the other hard ones

What other question would you like to answer? And what would you answer?

None :)

Please introduce yourself!

I am Christos, i am 25 years old and I live in Salamis a small island near Athens, Greece. I just finished my studies for a Bsc in computer Science. I enjoy music, programming, playing games, and of course going out with friends.

Tell us about the background to your computer use.

The first time i used a computer was many years ago, when i was about 6 years old, so I am occupied with computers about 19 years now. Yes, time passes so quickly….

When and why did you start using openSUSE/SUSE Linux?

My first Linux distribution was SUSE Linux 6.3. Many years ago, i still remember the nice package with the cds the manuals etc inside. Since then i have used many Linux distro, trying to find the one that suits me best, I have finally found it the last year in openSUSE.

When did you join the openSUSE community and what made you do that?

About three months ago, I joined the openSUSE community. The main reason, that made me do that is that i have found many nice and interesting people inside this community, that are more than eager not only to help on matters concerning Linux and openSUSE, but are also fun to discuss in general.

In what way do you participate in the openSUSE project?

Currently i am working on a Google Summer of Code project for the openSUSE organization.

What especially motivates you to participate in the openSUSE project?

The way openSUSE project is structured and the people occupied with it, make me wanna be also a member of it.

Tell us about your GSoC project?

My GsoC project aims to bring a new merging utility for the configuration/sysconfig files currently used by the distribution. You can find many information about the project and the project till this moment on my blog.

When do you usually spend time on the openSUSE project?

At the moment all of my time goes on my GsoC project for openSUSE.

Three words to describe openSUSE? Or make up a proper slogan!

Freedom, Fun, Friends

What do you think is missing or underrated in the distribution or the project?

The only thing that comes to my mind, is that many people doesn’t actually know many features of the project, so better promotion i would say.

What do you think the future holds for the openSUSE project? And your future at the project?

I can only see openSUSE project becoming even better in the future, as for my future I hope I will be able to help

A person asks you why he/she should choose openSUSE instead of other distribution/OS. What would be your arguments to convince him/her to pick up openSUSE?

I would just say that openSUSE have it all, innovation and stability!

Which members of the openSUSE community have you met in person?

Most members of the Greek openSUSE community.

How many icons are currently on your desktop?

49

What is the application you can’t live without? And why?

Terminal. I love the command line….

Which application or feature should be invented as soon as possible?

Typing simply by thinking. Hmm, did i get to far? :p

Which is your preferred text editor? And why?

Gedit, it is simple and offers the necessary features i need for quick coding.

Which famous person would you want to join the openSUSE community?

Hmm, tough question, i want all people famous or not to join the community. Does that count for an answer? :D

Which computer related skills would you like to have?

3D designing & modeling

The Internet crashes for a whole week — how would you feel, what would you do?

I guess reading and listening to music would make me get over the worst week ever.

Which is your favorite movie scene?

Lord of the Rings the battle between Gandalf and the Balrog!!!

Star Trek or Star Wars?

Star Trek

What is your favorite food and drink?

Espresso coffee and donuts :p

Favorite game or console (in your childhood and nowadays)?

Diablo and Command & Conquer, nowadays I prefer mmorpg like Lineage II

Which city would you like to visit?

New York

What is your preferred way to spend your vacation?

Depends on the time of the year that vacations take place.

Image you would win the GSoC! What would you do? Would you stay with openSUSE?

Well I am about to continue my studies towards obtaining a master degree in Artificial Intelligence, so if i would win i would use the money for my expenses. I will stay in openSUSE anyway, my stickers with gecko in all my computers can guarantee it.

If traveling through time was possible — when would we be most likely to meet you?

In 60s-70s-80s best music ever!

There’s a thunderstorm outside — do you turn off your computer?

No!

Have your ever missed an appointment because you forgot about it while sitting at your computer?

I have never missed an appointment, but i have been late for that reason…

Show us a picture of something, you have always wanted to share!

I can’t think anything now…

You couldn’t live without…

My computer and possibly an internet connection

Which question was the hardest to answer?

The hardest question was What do you think is missing or underrated in the distribution or the project?. Because i really don’t think that something is missing.

]]> http://news.opensuse.org/2011/06/23/people-of-opensuse-christos-bountalis/feed/ 0 http://news.opensuse.org/2011/05/27/people-of-opensuse-jeff-mahoney/ http://news.opensuse.org/2011/05/27/people-of-opensuse-jeff-mahoney/#comments Fri, 27 May 2011 18:03:15 +0000 Kim Leyendecker http://news.opensuse.org/?p=8817 Nickname:

Jeff

N/A

Summer

Appreciate the little victories

Please introduce yourself!

I’m 32 and live in the Boston area. I’ve been working on Linux since 1999 and with SUSE since 2000. I started working with Linux by just hacking on small things and then moving on to specialize in file systems. These days I lead one of the SUSE Labs kernel teams, still focus on file systems, but also am involved in the technical leadership for the kernel in all SUSE and openSUSE products.

Tell us about the background to your computer use.

My parents bought an Apple IIC in 1986 or so, and I started hacking around in BASIC. As I grew, I found myself more interested in the system level of things. My original university major was electrical engineering before I switched to computer science, but I still took concentrations in system software and computer engineering. I learned about UNIX while at Computer Science House at the Rochester Insitute of Technology in Rochester, NY, and was a systems programmer with the institute’s information services department for a few years. After having some good experiences with clustered file systems, my then-coworker, Chris Mason, and I decided to try to write one of our own for Linux. Unfortunately, finding inexpensive clusterable hardware in 1999 was pretty difficult so we had to abandon it.

When and why did you start using openSUSE/SUSE Linux?

1999, when Chris was hired by SUSE to work on file systems. At the time I was using Mandrake, and switched to support his new gig. These days I pretty much always run Factory on my workstations.

When did you join the openSUSE community and what made you do that?

I’ve been with SUSE since 2000, so it was a natural progression when SUSE Linux turned into openSUSE.

In what way do you participate in the openSUSE project?

I maintain the kernel releases and handle most of the security maintenance for them. I also stir up some discussions that I feel need to happen surrounding other areas. I also help drive the goal of transparency on the Novell corporate side of things.

What especially motivates you to participate in the openSUSE project?

I believe that openSUSE is technically superior to the other community Linux distributions available and want to make it the most widely adopted Linux in the world.

What do you think was your most important contribution to the openSUSE project/community or what is the contribution that you’re most proud of?

I’m pretty proud of maintaining the kernel for openSUSE.

When do you usually spend time on the openSUSE project?

Most of the time? :) Since I’m fortunate enough to be able to work on it as part of my regular job, I put quite a bit of time into it.

Three words to describe openSUSE? Or make up a proper slogan!

Keep having fun!

What do you think is missing or underrated in the distribution or the project?

openSUSE 11.4 actually addressed my biggest complaint: Things like video and audio didn’t work well without having to manually configure a bunch of external repositories. The 11.4 release fixed that so that most things work out of the box. I’d also like to see better tools for automatic bug reporting. At least with Kernel bugs, nearly every single one starts with asking for the same information.

What do you think the future holds for the openSUSE project?

The 11.4 release numbers show that openSUSE is regaining popularity. I’d like to see this trend continue as a vibrant community grows around it.

A person asks you why he/she should choose openSUSE instead of other distribution/OS. What would be your arguments to convince him/her to pick up openSUSE?

It really depends on the person. The 11.4 release has many more things that just work right out of the box. For users, it’s easier. For developers, the build service makes developing cross-platform apps that much simpler.

Which members of the openSUSE community have you met in person?

Most of the ones who work SUSE as their day jobs. I haven’t had many opportunities to meet the rest of the community yet.

How many icons are currently on your desktop?

2. The default ones, trash and homedir. I like a tidy desktop and use the command line most of the time.

What is the application you can’t live without? And why?

Vim. I’d be pretty useless without it. :)

Which is your preferred text editor? And why?

Vim. It’s simple, powerful, and fast.

Which computer related skills would you like to have?

I wish I had a better knack for user interface design.

The Internet crashes for a whole week — how would you feel, what would you do?

I’d go backpacking since there’s no way I’m getting any work done that week. :)

Favorite game or console (in your childhood and nowadays)?

Fallout 3. I’m not much of a gamer and this one held my attention long enough that I played it through twice. I love the open world aspect of it and how the character is free to make choices that have repercussions.

Which city would you like to visit?

Sydney. I’ve travelled a bit in Europe and would really like to visit Australia.

What is your preferred way to spend your vacation?

Being a hugely technical person, I like my vacations to be as far away from technology as possible. I usually go backpacking when it’s warmer out and skiing when it’s not.

There’s a thunderstorm outside — do you turn off your computer?

I switch to my notebook if the storm is bad enough.

Have your ever missed an appointment because you forgot about it while sitting at your computer?

Of course. :)

Show us a picture of something, you have always wanted to share!

]]> http://news.opensuse.org/2011/05/27/people-of-opensuse-jeff-mahoney/feed/ 0 http://news.opensuse.org/2011/05/09/people-of-opensuse-jos-poortvliet/ http://news.opensuse.org/2011/05/09/people-of-opensuse-jos-poortvliet/#comments Mon, 09 May 2011 06:58:57 +0000 Kim Leyendecker http://news.opensuse.org/?p=8772 On this issue of people of openSUSE, you can read about our friendly SUSE community manager, Jos Poortvliet. Read about his job at the SUSE, what he does in openSUSE, his personal opinion of Free Software, openSUSE and more!

Please introduce yourself!

Hi there!

I’m Novell’s openSUSE community manager, dutch, workaholic, Free Software evangelist and cooking fanatic!

In openSUSE, I’m mostly active in marketing and working within Novell for openSUSE.

What especially motivates you to participate in the openSUSE project?

Well, my paycheck probably takes care of the first 40 hours I put in, but the other 40 are because openSUSE is cool…

Seriously, openSUSE is fun. It is a challenge – we face issues. But at the same time, there is clear progress, people are working tirelessly towards world domination and we are making steps in that direction. openSUSE has seriously cool technology, things other distro’s don’t – and we are not good at advertising it so there is work to do. And the openSUSE people are awesome, really. A nice bunch, fun to be around, knowledgeable. All that makes me go *jump jump* and want to keep doing what I do!

Three words to describe openSUSE? Or make up a proper slogan!

I would say that the fact we’re the only Linux distro which has its own beer is saying it all. You turn it into a slogan!

What do you think is missing or underrated in the distribution or the project?

The communication. We have a lot of people who think talk is not important. Which is probably in part due to the fact that we also have a lot of people who think talk is all that is important. Talk is cheap. If you don’t put your work in but just say “we should do X”, well, that’s not exactly useful I’m afraid. The limiting factor in any Free Software community is not ideas or knowing what to do. It is people who do the work. But at the same time, talk is important. To let others know what you do and prevent duplicate work. And to get the word out on what you do so you get users and new contributors. If you didn’t blog about it, it didn’t happen as far as the rest of the world is concerned…

We have got that balance wrong. Developers stop reading our mailing lists because there are people on it who think they add valuable insight while stating the obvious, again and again. Check out http://bikeshed.com/ please ;-)

At the same time we don’t get the word out on really valuable technology like YaST, OBS and other things. Yes, we are doing better because our marketing team is becoming more and more active. But they need to know what is going on – and most of our engineers doing cool stuff barely send a mail to -project about it, let alone that they would blog about new features or mail news@opensuse.org about them! There’s a task there too for people who ‘just hangout on mailing lists’. If you see something cool happen, why not blog about it yourself, or let the marketing team know? And dear developers, if you do something fun – if it’s worth talking about to the dude sitting next to you it is worth writing a blog about it. Nothing fancy, just post a screen shot and say what it is showing; or say it in a few words. A blog doesn’t need to be a book or article!

What do you think the future holds for the openSUSE project?

Well, if we get our communication in order, a bright future it will be. We have brilliant people, brilliant technology and strong backing from a company which is determined and pushing forward. And, in my opinion, involved in openSUSE just the way they should be. Not telling people what to do but just contributing and working with people. That’s something we have which other distributions lack!

Someone gives you $1.000.000 — what would you do with the money?

Quit my job so I wouldn’t have to do the administrative part of it and keep doing what I do. Or maybe even better – don’t tell anyone but secretly hire someone to do the paperwork for me and keep the job

If traveling through time was possible — when would we be most likely to meet you?

Any big event in history, but the further back the better. I would really love to have a chat with people like Socrates, Augustinus, Voltaire, Kant & Ghandi; but also see the first civilizations in Mesopothamia or alongside the Indus river in Pakistan (did you know they still build houses there almost like they did 4000 years ago?); walk on an Inca temple which is being build, or see the top stone being put on top of a piramid. Or – imagine the rush of joining a bunch of prehistoric people hunting a mammoth!

Have your ever missed an appointment because you forgot about it while sitting at your computer?

I do that almost every day, to the despair of colleagues and friends.

Any last words?

Nope, I’ll just keep on talking ;-)

http://lizards.opensuse.org/author/alexander_naumov/ Favorite season: Autumn. Motto: “be free like… freedom”

Please introduce yourself!

I grew up in a small military town of Mirnij in the northwestern part of Russia.

After school I went to study “Security of the telecommunications systems” in Saint Petersburg,

but I’ve never been a diligent student and left the University after 3 courses.

After some time, life brought me to Germany, where I found a job in SUSE/Novell, and where I work and to this day.

I play the violin, love European literature and classical music. I’m married to a wonderful woman in world and I have a very smart and sweet son Alex :)

Tell us about the background to your computer use.

The first computer, which was in my family, was ZX Spectrum. I will never forget the sound of loaded games (software was distributed on audio cassette tapes and loading into memory was a sound (perceived by the human ear), interpreted as a sequence of bytes).

When I was about 8-9, my father bought PC. This PC I used mostly for gaming.

The first programm I wrote in VisualBasic in 15. At the same time, I participated in competitions in programming (mostly pascal).

On the first course at University I started to learn C/C++ and GNU/Linux. It was a great time.

I associate this time not only with the most beautiful city in the world, but also with the start of using the best operating system and such books like

“Just for fun” by Linus Torvalds and “Understanding UNIX/Linux Programming” by Bruce Molay ;)

When and why did you start using openSUSE/SUSE Linux?

I think it was 2006, SUSE Linux 10.0. Before that, I used Mandrake, RedHat and FreeBSD.

Why? It’s always interesting to try something new.

When did you join the openSUSE community and what made you do that?

Around the same time I started work for SUSE/Novell.

In what way do you participate in the openSUSE project?

Well, mainly my contribute focuses on the development and support of the Russian openSUSE community.

I learn a lot in SUSE/Novell and I want to share this.

I’m autor of many different Russian articles about openSUSE project. I wrote (or just translated) many howtos/manuals about, for example,

how to use BuildService, or send bugreport (or why it’s so important), how to help and contribute to openSUSE project.

In Russia we have a lot of SUSE users, but not so many contributers.

I think it’s very important to explain that this is really not so hard to contribute, and everybody can do it.

And of course, as SUSE/Novell employee I work on internal SUSE infrastructure, it’s also testing and a bit packaging.

What especially motivates you to participate in the openSUSE project?

I just love it :)

It’s great to be part of openSUSE community and I’m proud that I work for SUSE Linux.

What do you think was your most important contribution to the openSUSE project/community or what is the contribution that you’re most proud of?

Hm.. good question.

I was initiator the creation of:

* Russian openSUSE planet: http://planet.opensuse.org/ru

* Russian openSUSE forum: http://forums.opensuse.org/p-russian/

* Russian Linux kernel portal: http://ru.kernelnewbies.org

A lot of people meet there every day. They help each other and discuss how to make openSUSE (GNU/Linux) even better.

When do you usually spend time on the openSUSE project?

Most of the time at work and every evenings, I think. Sometimes also on weekends.

For me it’s more than project, it’s more like style of life ;)

Three words to describe openSUSE? Or make up a proper slogan!

Open, Community, Fun

What do you think is missing or underrated in the distribution or the project?

1. Documentation. I miss developers documentation. Many projects do not have this, and you should ask every time maintainers/developers or read the code yourself.

It’s not a big problem, but with good documentation will be easier to start to hack and oS project will get more from the community back, I guess.

2. Multimedia support.

What do you think the future holds for the openSUSE project?

If activity of contributers will stay like today, then… world domination :)

A person asks you why he/she should choose openSUSE instead of other distribution/OS. What would be your arguments to convince him/her to pick up openSUSE?

Hm, actually it’s depend on situation. There are different arguments for developers and users.

For example, it is difficult to explain to users such things like Free Software and Open Source philosophy, or that he/she can also develop a system that he/she use.

Usually I use such arguments:

For non GNU/Linux users:

* Very big friendly community

* no costs

* no problems with viruses

* and yes, most important – GNU/Linux is sexy ;)

For non openSUSE, but GNU/Linux users:

* Very easy to build RPM software via OBS

* Very good infrastructure

* Very friendly community

Which members of the openSUSE community have you met in person?

Most of the SUSE/Novell employees and various community members during FOSDEM2010, Tokamak4, every openSUSE release pary (in Nürenberg) and of course openSUSE Conference 2009/2010.

How many icons are currently on your desktop?

In KDE: 5 (include Kickoff) + 7 system tray icons.

In Fluxbox: zero

What is the application you can’t live without? And why?

Bash? :)

Without vi, osc, rpm, zypper, git, mutt, ssh, tar, cmake… will be really complicated, I guess :)

Which application or feature should be invented as soon as possible?

Hmm … what’s about the Open Source Linux Driver Generator (LDG) for all types of devices and with 100% support for their functionality? :)

Which is your preferred text editor? And why?

vi

Just because it’s faster, easy to use and always available.

But of course it’s also question of habits and personal preference.

Which famous person would you want to join the openSUSE community?

Neo.

Which computer related skills would you like to have?

The first and most important is – better and quickly to understand stranger’s code.

Also:

* Better analytical thinking

* Packaging skills

* Debugging skills

* Better English :)

* More creativity

The Internet crashes for a whole week — how would you feel, what would you do?

Just relaxing.

Which is your favorite movie scene?

Blade Runner (by Ridley Scott)

“…I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe.

Attack ships on fire on the shoulders of Orion.

I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate.

All those moments…

will be lost in time…

like tears…

in rain…

Time to die.”

Star Trek or Star Wars?

Star Wars. Harrison Ford is super!

What is your favorite food and drink?

I like italian kitchen, but my favorite food is… all what are on mother’s kitchen :)

Favorite game or console (in your childhood and nowadays)?

childhood:

* Jagged Alliance 2

* Fallout 2

nowadays:

* Chess

* Kicker

Which city would you like to visit?

Saint Petersburg, Russia

What is your preferred way to spend your vacation?

With my family visit friends in other cities/countries.

Someone gives you $1.000.000 — what would you do with the money?

Buy a house

If traveling through time was possible — when would we be most likely to meet you?

60s-70s, USA

There’s a thunderstorm outside — do you turn off your computer?

Nah. It’s more interesting to wait and see what will happen :)

Have your ever missed an appointment because you forgot about it while sitting at your computer?

Ou yeah :)

Show us a picture of something, you have always wanted to share!

See my blog or picasaweb gallary: http://picasaweb.google.com/posix.ru/

You couldn’t live without…

Faith in God and love of my family

Which question was the hardest to answer?

About application. It’s really not easy to find just one application.

What other question would you like to answer? And what would you answer?

I think I had enough. Thank you :)

Please introduce yourself!

My name is Per Jessen, I’m 46 and I live in Switzerland with my wife and son. I’m Danish and I grew up in Denmark, but left about 20 years ago and have since lived and worked in a number of European countries. Professionally I’m a software engineer, and have spent most of my career working on or with IBM mainframes. I’ve been running my own business since 2004.

Tell us about the background to your computer use.

My first encounter with a computer was probably in high-school when I got to play with a 16-bit RC7000 (apparently a Data General Nova under the covers). 32K of core memory, a TTY 33 teletype console with paperpunch, dual 8-inch floppy-drives and three terminals. I wrote a lot of COMAL code for that. A little later I bought my ZX81 and after having studied electronics in the early 1980s I went to work in IT for a Danish bank.

When and why did you start using openSUSE/SUSE Linux?

I started with SuSE Linux 4.4.1 in 1996 or thereabouts. I bought the box at the Hugendubel bookstore on Marienplatz in Munich. I don’t remember any particular reason why, maybe I was just being curious.

When did you join the openSUSE community and what made you do that?

I don’t remember when I joined, but I think it was quite early. My reason for joining was that openSUSE looked like a concept that could be going places and as openSUSE was my favourite distro anyway, it seemed like a good idea to get more involved.

In what way do you participate in the openSUSE project?

I report bugs, I test the alphas and betas, occasionally I submit patches, I participate on many of the project mailing lists, I actively try to influence where we’re going, and I’ve recently begun working with the OBS.

What especially motivates you to participate in the openSUSE project?

Nothing in particular. I’m just being loyal to my favourite distro.

What do you think was your most important contribution to the openSUSE project/community or what is the contribution that you’re most proud of?

I was quite pleased with myself when I succeeded in upgrading nasm (mostly to incorporate a patch I had submitted to the nasm-project a year ago), but it’s hardly an important contribution.

When do you usually spend time on the openSUSE project?

It varies, mostly during the week.

Three words to describe openSUSE? Or make up a proper slogan!

„The green stuff!“

What do you think is missing or underrated in the distribution or the project?

I think we need more leadership and better quality control. We have too many changes happening without proper review, consideration and planning.

What do you think the future holds for the openSUSE project?

No idea.

A person asks you why he/she should choose openSUSE instead of other distribution/OS. What would be your arguments to convince him/her to pick up openSUSE?

If someone asks me, it’s because they value my advice – I hope that is enough to convince him or her.

Which members of the openSUSE community have you met in person?

None (as far as I know).

How many icons are currently on your desktop?

I don’t know, I don’t really use my desktop much. I have about 35-36 open windows.

What is the application you can’t live without? And why?

Openoffice – because I do everything in openoffice. Asterisk – because it runs my office and home telephone system.

Which application or feature should be invented as soon as possible?

A unified communications device for use with DECT, Wifi, GSM etcetera. Anywhere, anytime. In essence, the Star Trek comms-badge.

Which is your preferred text editor? And why?

Today it’s kwrite and vi, but I really like(d) IBMs LPEX that was part of VisualAge C++.

Which famous person would you want to join the openSUSE community?

No-one.

Which computer related skills would you like to have?

I could probably do with acquiring some better perl skills, but it’s not a language I really like working with.

The Internet crashes for a whole week — how would you feel, what would you do?

Relax.

Which is your favorite movie scene?

From the Australian movie „The Dish“ when the local band plays the title-music from „Hawaii Five-O“ thinking it is the American national anthem.

Star Trek or Star Wars?

I like both actually.

What is your favorite food and drink?

Käsespätzle mit Röstzwiebel. Ittinger Klosterbräu. Erdinger Dunkelweiss.

Favorite game or console (in your childhood and nowadays)?

Diablo, Transport Tycoon, Master of Magic.

Which city would you like to visit?

I’ve been to many of the world’s big cities, but I’ve never been to China, so perhaps Shanghai or Beijing.

What is your preferred way to spend your vacation?

On the beach, in Greece or in Denmark.

Someone gives you $1.000.000 — what would you do with the money?

Buy a Ferrari.

If traveling through time was possible — when would we be most likely to meet you?

I’d like to jump to somewhere 50-100 years from now – I’d like to see what the historians of the (near) future think of our world and our actions today.

There’s a thunderstorm outside — do you turn off your computer?

No.

Have your ever missed an appointment because you forgot about it while sitting at your computer?

Yes.

Show us a picture of something, you have always wanted to share!

This is „Tiger“, our wild cat taking a nap amongst the raspberries in the very early spring sun.

You couldn’t live without…

My family.

Which question was the hardest to answer?

The one about the picture I wanted to share.

What other question would you like to answer? And what would you answer?

Q: Do you actively contribute to other open source projects?

A: Yes, over the years, I have contributed to a few projects. In no particular order: dosemu, etherboot, hercules-390 (floating point support), maxdb (porting to linux-390), clamav. Way back in my OS/2 days, I published WFDOS, a utility for running DOS programs within IBM Workframe/2. I needed an assembler back then, and only had Borlands Turbo Assembler, but this was only for DOS.

People of openSUSE

Your Full Name: Andrew Wafaa

IRC Nick: FunkyPenguin, FunkyPenguin_mob

Favorite Season: Whichever one my favorite team wins.

Motto:

Personal: Be true to yourself and learn from your mistakes

For openSUSE: Green the original distro colour, accept no imitations

Please Introduce Yourself:

Every openSUSE user, that tuned graphic, used SaX2. The xorg.conf created with SaX2 has this line:
# Contact: Marcus Schaefer , 2005

Of course the sax2 is the best known, or better to say the most popular part of his work, but there is much more. The most recent project is KIWI that allows relative painless creation of distribution images (CD, DVD, USB memory stick, … ), and the KIWI is what powers up the SUSE Studio, powerfull and easy to use image creation service.

Nicknames:	schaefi
Homepage:	http://www-ms.homelinux.com
Blog:	openSUSE blog
Favorite season:	summer
Motto:	live is a beach(volleyball) :)

Please introduce yourself!

I was born into a family with a close touch to nature in the Alps region town of Isny at Allgäu, in the German state of Württemberg. My father Wolfgang Schäfer is a technician and an example for me from the beginning on. My mother Susanne Schäfer is a sportswoman, she always encouraged me to keep on running. My parents gave me full freedom in my decisions and so I decided to became an assistent in physics before I studied computer science. Sport is an elementary part of my life. I always find freedom, friends and a balance to business in sports. My favourites are beachvolleyball and cycling. March 26th 2008 is the year I became a father which was the biggest change in my life followed by my marriage with my wonderful wife Daniela in 2007. Our son Florian is as sweet as a boy can be and I’m excited to see our young family growing :-)

Tell us about the background to your computer use.

I studied computer science at the university of applied sciences in Isny in Allgäu. The atmsphere there was more like in a family and I had the chance to take part in several admin projects which forms the background of my first real use of a computer.

When and why did you start using openSUSE/SUSE Linux?

I started using Slackware Linux at home in 1996 even though you first had to compile a kernel with your cdrom driver included to be able to start the installation I found that Linux rocks.

When did you join the openSUSE community and what made you do that?

I think it was around 1998 when S.u.S.E. offered me a job as an intern and I started my first opensource project called sax. That was the time when I learned how important it is to have users and people supporting you in your effort.

In what way do you participate in the openSUSE project?

The openSUSE Build Service relies on a cluster of build nodes which creates the packages from the projects. I have implemented an appliance builder and the PXE infrastructure to easily create and deploy the nodes for building the packages.

What especially motivates you to participate in the openSUSE project?

As the name says it’s open and along with Novell’s enterprise strategy it’s important for me to be part of an open community too.

What would be your the most important contribution to the openSUSE project and community, or what is the contribution that you’re most proud of?

I think the fact that SUSE is the only distribution which has a unique and fully functional X configuration utility over the last 10 years is something I’m a bit proud of :)

When do you usually spend time on the openSUSE project?

More often than my wife likes it :)

Three words to describe openSUSE? Or make up a proper slogan!

Simply trust the geeko

What do you think is missing or underrated in the distribution or the project?

I don’t know exactly but I think the expert knowledge at SUSE is somewhat unique and surely underrated

What do you think the future holds for the openSUSE project?

I hope that the open source community believes in us that the name “open”SUSE really is meant serious and that the name SUSE stands for an open distribution as well as for the base of enterprise products. The opensource community is the most important value an operating system can rely on.

A person asked you why he/she should choose openSUSE instead of other distribution/OS.

I always encourage people to use openSUSE because with the distro they also get the expert on their side :)

Which members of the openSUSE community have you met in person?

The most often Adrian sitting in the server room freezing :) and many others working in the Nuremberg office.

How many icons are currently on your desktop?

One.

What is the application you can’t live without? And why?

vi, you know why :)

Which application or feature should be invented as soon as possible?

The Studio Marketplace

Which is your preferred text editor? And why?

vi, don’t ask why :)

Which famous person would you want to join the openSUSE community?

Peter Anvin, he rocks.

Which computer related skills would you like to have?

I would wish to know more about networks, network security and firewalling.

The Internet crashes for a whole week – how would you feel, what would you do?

Hey there’s git, no problem to proceed coding :)

Which is your favorite movie scene?

Ice Age, when Scrat meets Scraty :)

Star Trek or Star Wars?

Star Trek

What is your favorite food and drink?

Spätzle mit Soß und dazu a Clemens

Favorite game or console (in your childhood and nowadays)?

Monkey Island

Which city would you like to visit?

Boston

What is your preferred way to spend your vacation?

At the beach playing beachvolleyball

Someone gives you $1.000.000 – what would you do with the money?

It will not happen so sorry can’t tell you a good answer

If traveling through time was possible – when would we be most likely to meet you?

Somewhere in the future

There’s a thunderstorm outside – do you turn off your computer?

I never turn of my computers :)

Have your ever missed an appointment because you forgot about it while sitting at your computer?

To my shame yes more than one time

Show us a picture of something, you have always wanted to share!

I’m thinking of sharing a picture of my sweet boy with the world. But I will wait until he is old enough to be able to agree to that :-)

You couldn’t live without…

Mikasa

Which question was the hardest to answer?

This one :-)

What other question would you like to answer? And what would you answer?

There are many questions I don’t have a good answer for, so better don’t think too much about it ;)